FC: More on DNA sniffing and whether it can reliably identify you

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Hugh below writes that mitochondrial DNA may not carry enough 
differentiating information to be useful to police. I welcome other views, 
but here's an excerpt from the National Commission on the Future of DNA 
Evidence report saying it can, or can soon:

http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles1/nij/177626.txt
> Over the years, the technology has undergone rapid change and
> refinement that has increased both its capability to obtain meaningful
> results from old evidence samples and its discriminatory capabilities. At
> first, crime laboratories relied primarily on restriction fragment length
> polymorphism (RFLP) testing, a technique that is very discriminating but
> requires a comparatively large quantity of good quality DNA. Now,
> however, most laboratories are shifting to using tests based on the
> polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, a kind of molecular copying
> technique that can generate reliable data from extremely small amounts of
> DNA in crime scene samples. Indeed, we are moving into an era where a
> PCR-based test using mitochondrial DNA can successfully obtain results
> from a shaft of hair or dried bones. (See discussion in chapter 3.)

-Declan

*******

> From: "Hugh D. Hyatt" <hughhyatt () crosswinds net>
> To: declan () well com
> Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 12:37:36 -0500
> Subject: Re: FC: DNA sniffing and identification based on your breathing
> Reply-to: hughhyatt () iname com
> Priority: normal
> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12c)
>
> On 14 Nov 2000, at 9:49, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>
> > No wonder some politicos want everyone DNA-tested at birth
>
> IIRC, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) comprises a relatively short sequence
> of [A, C, G & T] amino acids and is passed directly from mothers to
> their children, with fathers having no contribution whatsoever.
> Consequently differences among different mtDNA lines occur relatively
> rarely.  I would think, though I could easily be wrong, that because of
> this, there would be relatively little information that could be use to
> law enforcement.
> --
> Hugh D. Hyatt            e-mail: mailto:hughhyatt () iname com
> P.O. Box 143                web: http://www.crosswinds.net/~hughhyatt
> 611 Dale Road             voice: 215.947.1799
> Bryn Athyn, PA 19009             215.947.9673
>
> While I thought I was learning to live, I have been learning to die.
>                                                 -- Leonardo da Vinci

********


> Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 10:53:44 -0500 (EST)
> From: Charles Platt <cp () panix com>
> To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
> Cc: cp () panix com
> Subject: Re: FC: DNA sniffing and identification based on your breathing
>
> I proposed routine identification scans of people in public areas, using
> skin-flake DNA tests, in a short opinion piece in Wired, five years ago. I
> suggested that this would not be an entirely bad thing if the equipment
> became cheap enough for many people to use it privately (like the
> camcorder, which has been used to disprove the claims of innocence by many
> public employees, most recently two off-duty police who claimed that they
> didn't push someone downstairs).
>
> Power need not be dangerous if it is equally shared.
>
> --CP





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